The dysfunction of the liver, which is an organ playing a core role in nutrient metabolism, causes problems with nutrient metabolism in the body. When slightly damaged, the liver can recuperate hepatocytes thereof though rest, but persons in the present-day society who are too busy to rest tend to develop liver disease. Liver diseases include fatty liver, hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, etc., with hepatitis being most common. Hepatitis, which is inflammation of the liver tissue, may be acute or chronic depending on the lasting period thereof and is classified into viral hepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis, and drug-induced hepatitis by causes. At present, drugs are prescribed, in combination with exercise, alcohol abstinence, diet therapy, and the like, for the treatment of hepatitis, but completely healing from hepatitis is difficult by such means. Thus, there is a continued need for a therapeutic agent for liver diseases or a hepatoprotective agent, which is effective and improved.
Medicines which are used as hepatoprotective and therapeutic agents for liver diseases become nutrients for the liver, serving to stabilize hepatocytes and activate enzymes in hepatocytes. Representative of the medicines are silymarin and biphenyldimethyl dicarboxylate (BDD) (Korea Patent Nos. 10-0090902 and 10-0577514). Silymarin is an extract from fruits of milk thistle, which is in the Compositae family and BDD can be extracted from Schisandra chinensis. These medicines are known to protect the liver by suppressing lipid oxidation in hepatocytes thanks to the potent antioxidant effects thereof. However, these therapeutic agents for liver diseases have a limitation in showing temporal effects rather than fundamentally ameliorating liver diseases and suffer from the disadvantage of inducing rapid actions or causing side effects upon mass or long-term administration.